Let’s Recycle Right

The first season of US comedy show Human Resources is available on YouTube. The Pivot series gives an unconventional behind-the-scenes look at the innovative recycling company TerraCycle. The philosophy of the company in New Jersey is to  recycle the "non-recyclable." Whether it’s coffee capsules, pens or plastic gloves, TerraCycle takes anything and everything that is landfill bound—from potato chip bags to cigarette butts—and recycles, upcycles, reuses, or otherwise transforms these objects into something else. Using science, creativity, and a little Do It Yourself attitude, they’re changing the way we think about trash.

In nature, waste does not exist. All materials are reused or recycled through natural processes. However, modern human society and technology have created a massive waste issue. The creation of complex plastic polymers during and after the Industrial Revolution broke the closed-loop, sustainable system that had existed on Planet Earth for billions of years. Now the irrepressible demand for safe, conveniently packaged consumer goods is annually creating billions of tons of non-recyclable or difficult to recycle waste.

Inspired by Terracycle’s mission, Pivot has joined forces with Recycle Across America to create Let’s Recycle Right, a campaign focused on helping individuals, businesses, and communities improve recycling levels to create a more sustainable future. Recycle Across America has identified a simple solution to increase recycling levels in the U.S. — standardized labels on recycling bins, which make it easy for people to recycle more and recycle right.

Photos: ©Terracycle